A Disgraceful Resolution

Published:PravdaNo. 146, October 18, 1912.

      Signed:T..

      Published according to thePravdatext.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,[1975],

      Moscow,Volume 18,

      pages353-354.Translated:Stepan ApresyanTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive

      (2004).You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

Theresolution adopted by the St. Petersburg City Council
on October 10 has attracted public attention.

Theresolution concerns the Balkan war, the most important event in
world politics, and it comes from an influential public body—influential
among the bourgeoisie. It was adoptedunanimouslyby avowed
reactionaries and by liberals.

Falbork,a liberal, and all but a “democrat” (!?) and Cadet, urged
the necessity of that kind of resolution in an “ardent speech”; he was a
member of the drafting commission, and voted for the resolution.

Thisresolution is a specimen of bourgeois chauvinism, of the
bourgeoisie’s abject servility to “the powers that be”, of bourgeois
support for a policy which turns the peoples into cannon fodder.

“St.Petersburg,”says the resolution, which is
   addressed to the capitals of the belligerent Balkan powers, “shares your
   hope of a bright future of independent liberty for the oppressed peoples, a
   liberty in whose name you are shedding your blood.”

“St.Petersburg,”says the resolution, which is
   addressed to the capitals of the belligerent Balkan powers, “shares your
   hope of a bright future of independent liberty for the oppressed peoples, a
   liberty in whose name you are shedding your blood.”

Thisis the sort of phrases that chauvinism hides behind! Never and
nowhere has “liberty” been won by the oppressed peoples through one
people wagingwaragainst another. Wars between peoples merely
increase the enslavement of peoples. Reallibertyfor the Slav
peasant in the Balkans, as well as for the Turkish peasant, can be ensuredonlyby complete liberty insideeverycountry and by a
federation of completely and thoroughly democratic states.

TheSlav and the Turkish peasants in the Balkans are brothers who are
equally “oppressed” by their landlords and their governments.

Thatis where real oppression lies, and the real obstacle to
“independence” and “liberty”.

Thereactionary and liberal chauvinists, who are openly making common
cause in the St. Petersburg City Council (just as they are covertly making
common cause in the press, for the arguments ofRechandNovoye Vremyaon this point are atbottomidentical,
differing only in tone and detail)—these chauvinists advocate turning the
peoples into can non fodder!